What do you think?
Rate this book
Two Sisters
‘A book at once bold, magnanimous, heart-breaking and riveting’ HOWARD JACOBSON
‘Beautiful. Affecting. Erudite.’ SUSIE ORBACH
TWO SISTERS publishes on the 30th anniversary of Blake Morrison’s ground-breaking book And When Did You Last See Your Father? which forged the way for a new genre of confessional memoir.
‘She’s gone, that’s all, and though there’s no retrieving her I’d like to make sense of who she was and what she became. It wasn’t just that she changed over time. She could change from day to day. Drink made it worse but the origins went deeper. You never knew which you’d get, the kind and loving Gill or her doppelgänger. Two sisters.’
Blake Morrison has lost a sister and a half-sister in recent years. Both are the subjects of this remarkable and heart-breaking memoir, along with a forensic examination of sibling relationships in history and literature.
Blake’s sister Gill struggled with alcoholism for a large part of her life, and her shocking death is the starting point for Two Sisters. Blake returns to their childhood to search for the origins of her later difficulties, and in doing so unearths the story behind his half-sister, Josie.
As he unravels these narratives, Blake deals movingly in the guilt and shame that will be familiar to every person who has struggled with addiction in their family. He is unflinching in doing so, and the result is a book which provides testament to that common struggle, as well as acknowledging the complex, hidden forces on which all our lives are based.
Two Sisters is the extraordinary new memoir from the chronicler of human frailty, Blake Morrison.
‘Beautiful. Affecting. Erudite.’ SUSIE ORBACH
TWO SISTERS publishes on the 30th anniversary of Blake Morrison’s ground-breaking book And When Did You Last See Your Father? which forged the way for a new genre of confessional memoir.
‘She’s gone, that’s all, and though there’s no retrieving her I’d like to make sense of who she was and what she became. It wasn’t just that she changed over time. She could change from day to day. Drink made it worse but the origins went deeper. You never knew which you’d get, the kind and loving Gill or her doppelgänger. Two sisters.’
Blake Morrison has lost a sister and a half-sister in recent years. Both are the subjects of this remarkable and heart-breaking memoir, along with a forensic examination of sibling relationships in history and literature.
Blake’s sister Gill struggled with alcoholism for a large part of her life, and her shocking death is the starting point for Two Sisters. Blake returns to their childhood to search for the origins of her later difficulties, and in doing so unearths the story behind his half-sister, Josie.
As he unravels these narratives, Blake deals movingly in the guilt and shame that will be familiar to every person who has struggled with addiction in their family. He is unflinching in doing so, and the result is a book which provides testament to that common struggle, as well as acknowledging the complex, hidden forces on which all our lives are based.
Two Sisters is the extraordinary new memoir from the chronicler of human frailty, Blake Morrison.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published June 7, 2023
15 people are currently reading
243 people want to read
About the author
Blake Morrison
75 books65 followersBlake Morrison was educated at Nottingham University, McMaster University and University College, London. After working for the Times Literary Supplement, he went on to become literary editor of both The Observer and the Independent on Sunday before becoming a full-time writer in 1995.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and former Chair of the Poetry Book Society and Vice-Chair of PEN, Blake has written fiction, poetry, journalism, literary criticism and libretti, as well as adapting plays for the stage. His best-known works are probably his two memoirs, "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" and "Things My Mother Never Told Me."
Since 2003, Blake has been Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College. He lives in south London, with his wife and three children.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and former Chair of the Poetry Book Society and Vice-Chair of PEN, Blake has written fiction, poetry, journalism, literary criticism and libretti, as well as adapting plays for the stage. His best-known works are probably his two memoirs, "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" and "Things My Mother Never Told Me."
Since 2003, Blake has been Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College. He lives in south London, with his wife and three children.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
April 10, 2023
(3.75) (Apparently it’s Siblings Day in the USA, so I’ll take that as a good excuse for posting my review today, though actually it’s because the book is due back at the library tomorrow.) And When Did You Last See Your Father? was my top nonfiction read of 2018 and one of the best bereavement memoirs and family memoirs I’ve read. Morrison also writes novels and poetry, and followed up his first memoir with a second about his mother. I have that on the shelf to read but, in the meantime, heard that he had published the third part of a loose trilogy and was able to access it via the library.
In 2019 Morrison’s younger sister and “Irish twin,” Gill, died after a 30-year struggle with alcoholism. She had in that time also gone blind and experienced the breakdown of her marriage. Morrison had recently lost their half-sister, “Josie,” in an apparent suicide via an overdose of insulin. That his father had had an affair with her mother, the local publican’s wife, was an open secret in their Yorkshire village and well known to their mother, but only confirmed for Josie by DNA testing some months before her death.
Morrison wonders why stories of losing parents or children are commonplace, but records of love between and loss of siblings are so rare. In the more indulgent sections of this book (about five chapters’ worth in total), he considers his male predecessors who have written about their sisters (e.g. J.R. Ackerley, Henry and William James, Vladimir Nabokov), and famous brother-and-sister literary duos (The Mill on the Floss, Charles and Mary Lamb, the Wordsworths, and so on). I might have left out this material entirely, even if it reduced the page count to little over 200 pages. Presumably Morrison added it in because he was embarrassed by how little he knew about either sister and how much about their lives and eventual deaths would have to be speculation.
I did at times feel sad on the sisters’ behalf. A line Morrison writes about Gill in his teenage years is, to an extent, true about the whole: “She was just a backdrop to my own dramas.” Of course, we can only ever truly see things from our own perspective. But the cover image, too, sidelines Gill, whose cute face with its closed eyes, button nose and curly hair is only partially visible; Morrison, looking smug and chubby, is front and centre. I think he is, however, aware of his limited knowledge and sympathy. And he is searchingly honest about his relationship to Gill, suggesting reasons she might have turned to drink (being sent away to boarding school and other childhood trauma; loneliness) and wondering whether he could have done more to help her and how to characterize her end. Did she die of a disease like any other, or did she kill herself in a way comparable to Josie?
The last two chapters, about Gill’s death and legacy, and his decisions about how to write her story, were an overall highlight.
Some favourite lines:
In 2019 Morrison’s younger sister and “Irish twin,” Gill, died after a 30-year struggle with alcoholism. She had in that time also gone blind and experienced the breakdown of her marriage. Morrison had recently lost their half-sister, “Josie,” in an apparent suicide via an overdose of insulin. That his father had had an affair with her mother, the local publican’s wife, was an open secret in their Yorkshire village and well known to their mother, but only confirmed for Josie by DNA testing some months before her death.
Morrison wonders why stories of losing parents or children are commonplace, but records of love between and loss of siblings are so rare. In the more indulgent sections of this book (about five chapters’ worth in total), he considers his male predecessors who have written about their sisters (e.g. J.R. Ackerley, Henry and William James, Vladimir Nabokov), and famous brother-and-sister literary duos (The Mill on the Floss, Charles and Mary Lamb, the Wordsworths, and so on). I might have left out this material entirely, even if it reduced the page count to little over 200 pages. Presumably Morrison added it in because he was embarrassed by how little he knew about either sister and how much about their lives and eventual deaths would have to be speculation.
I did at times feel sad on the sisters’ behalf. A line Morrison writes about Gill in his teenage years is, to an extent, true about the whole: “She was just a backdrop to my own dramas.” Of course, we can only ever truly see things from our own perspective. But the cover image, too, sidelines Gill, whose cute face with its closed eyes, button nose and curly hair is only partially visible; Morrison, looking smug and chubby, is front and centre. I think he is, however, aware of his limited knowledge and sympathy. And he is searchingly honest about his relationship to Gill, suggesting reasons she might have turned to drink (being sent away to boarding school and other childhood trauma; loneliness) and wondering whether he could have done more to help her and how to characterize her end. Did she die of a disease like any other, or did she kill herself in a way comparable to Josie?
The last two chapters, about Gill’s death and legacy, and his decisions about how to write her story, were an overall highlight.
Some favourite lines:
“You can’t write an honest memoir when the subject is alive. At any rate I can’t. Death is the only permission.”
“We made a sad pair: curators of the museum of our childhood.”
“When I’ve worked with students who’re writing memoirs, fathers are invariably the focus, because absent, alcoholic, violent, criminal or dead, whereas mothers - present, dependable, nurturing, nicer - stay in the shadows. The dads are at the wheel, driving the narrative, while the mums take a back seat. It’s a reflection of how power used to be apportioned within marriage, still is mostly, with women the primary carers and men enjoying greater freedom - a freedom which, in these memoirs at least, they abuse.”
“Everything conspired to be relevant. I remembered this from Mum and Dad’s deaths. Omens which, if you were writing fiction, would seem contrived. Truths you couldn’t make up.”
“That’s the accusation any memoir writer has to face: that to publicise difficult family stuff is mercenary, opportunistic and, worst of all, un-literary.”
quoting Louise Glück: “We look at the world once, in childhood. / The rest is memory.“
dnf
November 18, 2023Here are my thoughts why I have decided to stop and not finish this book after 10% or so.
This book was a memoir for the author's sister who died how and when I will not know, because I stopped reading it and the reasons are:
1. The author's father had a child with a family friend. Ok. But then the author decides to explore how this happened, where did they conceive this child and incredible amount of speculations on how it was received by the ladies husband. Get a grip, the lady has been depressed for years as not being able to conceive child, so she must have been happy. Then comes long thoughts what is wedlock and surprise surprise she is married. In addition the author allows himself to think if the lady thought about abortion and decides, no, because she is catholic. However tell me what religion on this planet is in favour of abortions?
2. As the kids he and his sister played doctors (not surprise as their parents were GP's) and then he states that there was not sexuality in this game (my God why it should be) and then he starts to tell history of incest starting with Cleopatra and ending with Virginia Woolf.
After reading all this, I have stopped. I will never know how and why his sister has died, but could not go more into these educational journeys about whatever he is intended to teach us.
And about childhood games, we used to play families,like mother and father and kids with my friends. Well, me being youngest, I was always kid and I always remember is fun and most what we did is making ourself fashionable. At one instance I remember I
have been dressed with too skirts, one as skirt and other as bollero on top. Tell me, is there anything invoking sex, anything I should write memoirs about?
This book was a memoir for the author's sister who died how and when I will not know, because I stopped reading it and the reasons are:
1. The author's father had a child with a family friend. Ok. But then the author decides to explore how this happened, where did they conceive this child and incredible amount of speculations on how it was received by the ladies husband. Get a grip, the lady has been depressed for years as not being able to conceive child, so she must have been happy. Then comes long thoughts what is wedlock and surprise surprise she is married. In addition the author allows himself to think if the lady thought about abortion and decides, no, because she is catholic. However tell me what religion on this planet is in favour of abortions?
2. As the kids he and his sister played doctors (not surprise as their parents were GP's) and then he states that there was not sexuality in this game (my God why it should be) and then he starts to tell history of incest starting with Cleopatra and ending with Virginia Woolf.
After reading all this, I have stopped. I will never know how and why his sister has died, but could not go more into these educational journeys about whatever he is intended to teach us.
And about childhood games, we used to play families,like mother and father and kids with my friends. Well, me being youngest, I was always kid and I always remember is fun and most what we did is making ourself fashionable. At one instance I remember I
have been dressed with too skirts, one as skirt and other as bollero on top. Tell me, is there anything invoking sex, anything I should write memoirs about?
October 24, 2023
Mixed feelings - I love the style of blending memoir and lit crit, but at times trying to narrate his sister’s story felt somewhat invasive and a bit uncomfortable
February 12, 2023
Riveting. I was compelled to keep reading this story of siblings from childhood to old age as it asked me questions of trauma, sibling loyalty, alcoholism and familial relationships. Blake has some brilliant turns of phrase. The exploration of other more famous siblings was a great addition to his personal story and documentation of how his younger sister fell into alcoholism and eventually death as a result. Brilliant.
September 3, 2023
Blake.
I’m going to say this just once.
Drop the themespotting and stop telling us whatever you’ve been reading.
Just tell us what sodding happened.
Savvy?
I’m going to say this just once.
Drop the themespotting and stop telling us whatever you’ve been reading.
Just tell us what sodding happened.
Savvy?
October 2, 2023
Once he’d dropped the tedious literary footnotes and padding about famous men and their sisters and just got on with the story this was poignant and moving.
But it did feel as if it was just as much about the authors guilty handwringing as it was his sister.
I’ve read some brilliant hard hitting autobiographies by women such as Viv Albertine, Rhona Campbell, Deborah Orr all about my age and all of whom I can identify with to a greater or lesser degree. I wish I could have read this story in Gillian’s words, I think we would have got to know her a bit better.
Dear old Blake he does his best and he’s obviously full of regrets “Did I advise Gill? Not that I can remember. I listened to her, I hope, and sympathised with her..it wasn’t my place to tell her what to do”
Full of perhapses and maybes
“Later the bullying got worse again. She’d change for PE or hockey, and when she came back, find her uniform had disappeared- that sort of thing. Perhaps she complained to the teachers and they pooh poohed it..more likely she held her tongue”
Sent from my iPhone
But it did feel as if it was just as much about the authors guilty handwringing as it was his sister.
I’ve read some brilliant hard hitting autobiographies by women such as Viv Albertine, Rhona Campbell, Deborah Orr all about my age and all of whom I can identify with to a greater or lesser degree. I wish I could have read this story in Gillian’s words, I think we would have got to know her a bit better.
Dear old Blake he does his best and he’s obviously full of regrets “Did I advise Gill? Not that I can remember. I listened to her, I hope, and sympathised with her..it wasn’t my place to tell her what to do”
Full of perhapses and maybes
“Later the bullying got worse again. She’d change for PE or hockey, and when she came back, find her uniform had disappeared- that sort of thing. Perhaps she complained to the teachers and they pooh poohed it..more likely she held her tongue”
Sent from my iPhone
February 27, 2023
What a sad story that emerges from the shadows of two sisters whose lives were shorter than they should have been.
I haven't read Blake Morrison's former two memoir's about his parents so came to this with an open mind but was drawn into Gill's story that progresses from the happy-go-lucky, younger Irish twin to a tortured woman who by the end of her life has descended into alcoholism. The book is really Blake Morrison trying to make sense of that.
Intertwined is the story of Blake & Gill's younger half-sister, never acknowledged as such, but still part of their childhood landscape. Josie's story is more opaque still, but no less devastating for that.
I did struggle with some of the references to other siblings as I'm not sure all of these added anything to the book, and I confess I ended up skipping some of the longer ones.
A book to reflect on and one that made me grateful to my own sibling!
I haven't read Blake Morrison's former two memoir's about his parents so came to this with an open mind but was drawn into Gill's story that progresses from the happy-go-lucky, younger Irish twin to a tortured woman who by the end of her life has descended into alcoholism. The book is really Blake Morrison trying to make sense of that.
Intertwined is the story of Blake & Gill's younger half-sister, never acknowledged as such, but still part of their childhood landscape. Josie's story is more opaque still, but no less devastating for that.
I did struggle with some of the references to other siblings as I'm not sure all of these added anything to the book, and I confess I ended up skipping some of the longer ones.
A book to reflect on and one that made me grateful to my own sibling!
June 20, 2024
this book is the literary equivalent of a man attempting to wow you with pseudo-intellectual monologuing topics you talked about as a ten year old.
“existential questions” such as “is incest in fact immoral since weve done it a lot??”, insisting over and over that him playing doctor with his sister never was anywhere close to incest or “how, where and when did my father sleep with his mistress?” definitely had me hooked. no, insulted. sprinkled in with a misuse of footnotes ensuring he could monologue til my eyes bled and confessions disguised as thoughts, by far the worst read ive had in a long time. the women he loved, lusted after and lost a backdrop to his ego.
hopefully only book in history that i literally drenched in coffee and threw out because i dont want anyone else to touch this garbage. cant believe i read any of this self involved nonsense.
“existential questions” such as “is incest in fact immoral since weve done it a lot??”, insisting over and over that him playing doctor with his sister never was anywhere close to incest or “how, where and when did my father sleep with his mistress?” definitely had me hooked. no, insulted. sprinkled in with a misuse of footnotes ensuring he could monologue til my eyes bled and confessions disguised as thoughts, by far the worst read ive had in a long time. the women he loved, lusted after and lost a backdrop to his ego.
hopefully only book in history that i literally drenched in coffee and threw out because i dont want anyone else to touch this garbage. cant believe i read any of this self involved nonsense.
April 24, 2023
Although the (over)use of quotes and descriptions of other books is foreshadowed in chapter 2, along with a comment to skip them if uninterested, the sheer amounts of them makes it seem as if the book is more about the author wanting to seem intellectual, rather than wanting to tell the story of his sister(s). The number of times incest keeps being reintroduced, despite emphasis that this most likely hasn't occured between him and his sister, becomes uncomfortable after a while. His attempts to put himself in his sister's shoes highlights his lack of emotional intelligence, and makes him seem more self-absorbed than he most likely is. A difficult life, which could have remained unwritten.
May 14, 2023
Blake Morrison’s memoir of his sisters, Gill and Josie, is fascinating and sad.
What lies at the centre of the book, and of his sisters’ lives, particularly Josie’s, is a damaging secret.
Blake’s parents and their friend, Beaty collude not to tell Josie the truth about her parentage. When Josie asked her mother, Beaty, who her biological father is, she is repeatedly lied to. Her father is Blake’s father.
I know this kind of deceit was sadly, not uncommon in the 50s and 60s.
Blake shows how much he cared for his sisters. He was a kind and considerate brother, and this book is testament to that.
What lies at the centre of the book, and of his sisters’ lives, particularly Josie’s, is a damaging secret.
Blake’s parents and their friend, Beaty collude not to tell Josie the truth about her parentage. When Josie asked her mother, Beaty, who her biological father is, she is repeatedly lied to. Her father is Blake’s father.
I know this kind of deceit was sadly, not uncommon in the 50s and 60s.
Blake shows how much he cared for his sisters. He was a kind and considerate brother, and this book is testament to that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 7, 2024
Goed vond ik het. En ook weer gruwelijk. Hoe een zus zo ten onder gaat aan alcohol en niemand haar daarvan af kan houden. Haar ouders niet, haar broer (de schrijver) niet. Die schrijver blijkt een tweede zus te hebben. Zij gaat ook dood, waarom eigenlijk. Engelse familie, waarin de broer de bink is en het meisje naar kostschool wordt gestuurd. Zij voelt ,ich niet gezien en niet gehoord, wordt gepest, slaagt er niet in iets van haar leven te maken, steelt en liegt. Mensen komen oor haar op en beschermen haar. Maar ontsnapping is niet mogelijk. Ze drinkt tot de dood.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2024
I'm not a fan of foot notes at all, so I would have preferred this to be a more straightforward memoir, underpinned by readings and literary thoughts, as literature is how Morrison processes the world around him. I loved When Did You Last See Your Father? because it had echoes of my relationship with my father, although this book has less direct emotional impact for me. But I found it really gripping and knotty, not always easy to read, and probably not for everyone.
May 20, 2023
Sad but with a very full and concise look at the lives of the author’s siblings. I wasn’t expecting the literature review/anthropological look into how siblings are but I really enjoyed that element, which highlighted how we use academia/literature/media representation to try and make sense of ourselves and other people - often fruitlessly
February 29, 2024
133 pages in & I give up. The tale of a man who grew up with an alcoholic sister & a half sister he didn't know he was related to. A lot of rambling Nd nonsense that adds nothing to the story, references a lot of historical writers, whole chapters about famous siblings where one died, the bits about their life and his own writing were ok but not enough to persevere
February 7, 2023
An interesting look at not just the authors relationships with his siblings, but other people's too.
I'd forgotten what a tangled web the Morrison family was.
Pulled on the heartstrings a few times as he detailed his sisters battles with alcohol.
I'd forgotten what a tangled web the Morrison family was.
Pulled on the heartstrings a few times as he detailed his sisters battles with alcohol.
abandoned
December 13, 2023Second abandoned book in a row. Life is definitely too short to listen to men making everything all about themselves and also, disturbingly, about incest.
January 18, 2024
slightly confused as to why a memoir about the authors sister is continually filled with examples of famous historical incestuous siblings.
Less of that please x
Less of that please x
March 20, 2024
I like Blake Morrison's writing - and his honesty. This is a mix of reflection, hard hitting family saga and literary reviews. It therefore does fall a bit between stools but still worth reading.
January 2, 2025
Couldn't finish this.
Too much speculating. I usually like Blake Morrison but I think even he didn't know what he was setting out to do in this book.
Too much speculating. I usually like Blake Morrison but I think even he didn't know what he was setting out to do in this book.
April 3, 2023
Blake Morrison has previously written individual memoirs about his North Yorkshire GP parents and here he turns to his two younger sisters. One, Gill, shared his generally warm traditional childhood; the other, his unacknowledged half-sister, Josie, sometimes shared, apparently without too much awkwardness, outings and family holidays. Both Gill and Josie had what could be described as tragic lives, and Morrison unpicks his relationships with each of them. He probes his responsibilities, notes his fraternal failings and does his best to celebrate them, alongside reflections on other writers’ sibling relationships – from George Elliot and Henry James to Laurie Lee and Harper Lee – in their work and in real life.
Towards the end of Two Sisters, Morrison writes, ‘I do sometimes ask myself: why are you writing this?... It’s a sad story… Why bother? And what if it’s no more than a misery memoir, that most despicable of genres?’ His answer to his own question is: ‘Aren’t all lives, however damaged, of importance? Besides, what else would I write? For now it’s all I can think about about.’ The stories of Gill and Josie are undoubtedly sad, but this isn’t misery memoir – it doesn’t wail, it’s too self-aware, too quiet and thoughtful. Yes, all lives are of importance, but Morrison’s skill is that he makes them of interest too.
Towards the end of Two Sisters, Morrison writes, ‘I do sometimes ask myself: why are you writing this?... It’s a sad story… Why bother? And what if it’s no more than a misery memoir, that most despicable of genres?’ His answer to his own question is: ‘Aren’t all lives, however damaged, of importance? Besides, what else would I write? For now it’s all I can think about about.’ The stories of Gill and Josie are undoubtedly sad, but this isn’t misery memoir – it doesn’t wail, it’s too self-aware, too quiet and thoughtful. Yes, all lives are of importance, but Morrison’s skill is that he makes them of interest too.
April 20, 2023
Following his well regarded accounts of his tangled relationships with his parents, Blake Morrison now tells the tragic stories of his sister, Gill and half sister, Rosie allied to stories of other siblings
It is a heartbreaking account of the ravages of addiction but the skill of the author and his acute memories allied to his ability to write beautiful prose make this an absorbing and worthwhile, if sometimes, uncomfortable read.
It is a heartbreaking account of the ravages of addiction but the skill of the author and his acute memories allied to his ability to write beautiful prose make this an absorbing and worthwhile, if sometimes, uncomfortable read.
Read
April 15, 2023Audiobook review
Read by the author
Dull
Gave up
Read by the author
Dull
Gave up
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
May 8, 2023DNF - Just don't have the urge to pick this one up anymore
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews